Hurricane, UTLike so many patients before her, Jalene D. thought that the shoulder injury she suffered following her surgery was because of the shoulder surgery itself. She did not imagine that her problems could have been caused by the use of the shoulder pain pump. However, it appears as though Jalene is one of the many patients whose shoulder was made worse by the use of the pain pump.
"I had a shoulder incident and I had to have surgery," Jalene says. "And, when they [doctors] were done, they put a pain pump in there and sent me home with an ice pack on it. I was in a lot of pain for a long time. I complained about it to the doctor quit a bit but he said I would get over it. I got over some of it—probably the stuff from the surgery. But, after that I was still having problems.
"I can't get my range of motion back. I have popping in my shoulder and a throbbing pain. It continues to be a problem. It sometimes gets to where it pulls on my neck and it hurts my neck. It's painful. I'm living with it 24/7. It's hard to concentrate sometimes because of the pain.
"I'm having a heck of a time with it. It hurts—it's a problem. I'm ice-packing it still and it's been probably 2 years since the surgery. I still have to ice pack it to try to get the pain to go away. Sometimes I also use heat—I alternate between the 2.
"It's hard when you lose your range of motion. I can't lift groceries—I mean, I can lift groceries but it hurts a lot. But, I don't have any other way to move them, so I have to lift them with the pain. I can't function like I used to. I used to love to dance and I can't any more. It's put a real damper on my life.
"It's in my right shoulder. I'm left-handed, but I use my right hand for everything except eating and writing. When I'm carrying groceries or anything else, I use my right hand. Even dressing and undressing are hard because it hurts so much. This has impacted my day-to-day life. The pain is ongoing.
"I straighten my hair, so doing my hair makes my shoulder tired really quickly. And, when your shoulder is tired, that puts a lot of stress on your body, so that makes it hard, too. Any time you are stressing your body, you have a health issue. The stress caused by this has had a major impact on my health.
"They put the pain pump in right after my surgery and I went home with it in. It was taken out within 2 weeks of the surgery. I would tell people to ask a lot of questions and find out about the pump if they can. I think I was still groggy from being under the anesthesia. I didn't know the pain pump was what was in my shoulder. People should ask their doctors what they will do to relieve the pain after their shoulder surgery. If it's a shoulder pain pump, I'd advise them not to go that way—see if there's another option."
More and more patients are realizing that their shoulder injury may have been caused by the use of the shoulder pain pump. If you had shoulder surgery and suffered shoulder pain well after the surgery, there is a chance you were also affected by the use of the pain pump.